A series of three fanfics set in an alternate version of the Tiger & Bunny universe where Barnaby's parents didn't die when he was four. Unfortunately, he ends up dying at age 13, a fact by which his parents cannot abide so they build him a robot body to live in.
The trilogy can be found here
. A multi-chapter fic that serves as both an interquel and a sequel can be found here.
This fanfic provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Rotwang to Tora, for a given value of "parent." Might have been a better "parent" to Cis.
- Accidental Kiss: Subverted Kotetsu and Barnaby meant to give each other a kiss, just not on the mouth.
- Accidental Misnaming: When Kotetsu tried to soothe Barnaby (who was destroying various pieces of technology in his panic to get back to his body) by calling him Bunny, Barnaby's response was make the words "not a bunny" appear on a screen.
- Alternate Universe: Barnaby's parents are alive and well, having apparently never discovered Maverick's criminal connections.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Dr. Rotwang just wanted to create a better robot than the Brooks'. He didn't count on it becoming sentient.
- Attending Your Own Funeral: Lampshaded and averted; Barnaby doesn't go with his parents to the funeral of his original human body specifically because it would be awkward and creepy.
- Big Brother Mentor: Barnaby seems to think of his relationship with Tora as this, as he's teaching the younger entity about the world. As Tora's perception of different types of relationships alters with his growing knowledge, however, it starts to blur a bit. Barnaby admits at the end of the arc that he's not exactly sure where they stand anymore.
- Body Snatcher: Happens to Barnaby twice, with his consciousness split from his physical body
- Convenient Color Change: Tora's digital ghost alters based on emotions. Once Barnaby figures this out, he's a lot easier to teach.
- Crash-Into Hello: How Kotetsu enters into Barnaby's life.
- Digitized Hacker: Barnaby, though he uses his powers for good.
- Driven to Suicide: Rotwang's official cause of death
- Enemy Mine: "Enemy" might be overstating things, but Tora does not like Kotetsu and only works with with him to keep Barnaby safe.
- Explosive Overclocking: Maverick's cause of death and the destruction of the H-01 army.
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Fandom Nod: Tora's human form is based on Dark Kotetsu. - Flawed Prototype: What Maverick views Tora as after he builds an army of H-01's. Rotwang also views the older-model Barnaby as infinitely inferior to Cis.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: Kotetsu did this until Barnaby told him to knock it off.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Maverick offlines Barnaby and steals his body without knowing about a crucial overheating problem, and is later killed in the explosion when it overclocks and has a core meltdown.
- Mad Scientist: The Doctors Brooks aren't evil, but everyone seems to acknowledge they're just a little bit 'off'. Nathan even refers to them as "our benevolent mad scientists" once, and Barnaby thinks his parents would take the moniker as a compliment. Rotwang is a more straight example.
- Mama Bear: Emily Brooks. Not only was the Brain Uploading her idea, but if both she and Barnaby Sr. are angry about something she will always be the angrier of the two.
- More Expendable Than You: One of the conflicts in the second part of the arc is how much it freaks Kotetsu out that Barnaby seems to take this view. Barnaby reasons that it's fine because he can be rebuilt, but agrees to be more careful. Then we find out in part three that if certain bits were destroyed, he wouldn't be able to be reconstructed...
- Mundane Luxury: Barnaby was damn near giddy the first time he got to people watch since having his soul transferred into his robot body.
- No Social Skills: Barnaby tries, but after years of isolation, too much attention tends to make him a nervous wreck. Tora has little feeling for humans in general, but eventually warms up to the Brooks, and Kotetsu to a much lesser degree.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Subverted. If Kotetsu or Tora are talking about Barnaby they will refer to him by that name. As far as Tora's concerned Barnaby's name is Angel.
- People Puppets: Barnaby pulls this trick twice on a mechanical level; once to kill the first H-01 and once on the Wild Tiger armor, both times to save Kotetsu. Gets done to him as well when his second body is stolen.
- The Plan: What Maverick's plan in part three is revealed to be once Agnes starts looking at it "from a showman's point of view."
- Prompt Fic: Would you believe that each of the fics in the trilogy started as a prompt?
- Purely Aesthetic Glasses: Robot Barnaby wears them.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: The quickest way to tell when either one of the androids are well and truly pissed, or not under their own control.
- Revenge Before Reason: Rotwang snaps and sends Tora out to target the Brooks after "losing" one too many times to them. Everyone assumes this has also become Maverick's motivation in part three, until Agnes explains to Kotetsu exactly how much he'd benefit if his plan works.
- Ridiculously Human Robots: Justified by Barnaby, who used to be human. Tora was an accident.
- Secret Identity: Whenever Barnaby goes out in public he uses the name Rory Brooks.
- Shout-Out: Several, as the author admits borrowing from known robot tropes.
- Barnaby's net-diving is similar to that used in Ghost in the Shell.
- Tora's forming sentience is a shout out to The Vision.
- Maverick using Barnaby's body to seemingly create a robot revolution is pulled from Metropolis.
- Smart People Build Robots: The good Doctors Brooks and Brooks are roboticists.
- Soul Jar: What Barnaby's robot body amounts to.
- Un-person: Barnaby is one, essentially. However, he and Tora eventually gain a sort of personhood status
- Vague Age: Barnaby stopped keeping track of his age when he was 16. No one else's ages have been stated.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: A driving point in the series. Part of the reason Barnaby stayed hidden for so long was because even as a fully sentient android, he was still legally "just a robot" and could be ordered detained or even dismantled. There's also a sliding scale among the characters as to how much Barnaby and Tora still qualify.
